


Create

by YukiSkyes



Series: Tales From the Mountains of Odvirkast [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 09:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10682799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiSkyes/pseuds/YukiSkyes
Summary: While Hunk would've preferred not to wake up to a throbbing headache, his best friend with broken bones, and the dragon at their doorstep, it wasn't all bad when he finds a kindred spirit in Pidge.





	Create

“Eesh, what is in this thing?” Pidge grunted as he hauled Hunk’s bag off of Red with Rover drifting after him. “It’s like a bunch of rocks in here!”

Hunk smiled sheepishly as he got up from his conversation with Lance to help him carry both his and Lance’s pack the rest of the way next to his—or Pidge’s, actually—bed. He was careful to sort of avoid the lērus—Red. He got that she was friendly, but it was hard to turn off the animal part of his brain that yelled, “Danger! Four hundred so pound predator with sharp claws and teeth that could tear you apart in seconds!” every time she came near him. That’s the sane reaction, right?

Luckily, Red didn’t seem to care and only flicked her tail as she trotted back out once Pidge had finished unloading the rest of their things, her part in helping him get their stuff from the ravine done.

“Yeah, sorry. I tend to pack a lot when I go on expeditions,” he said apologetically. “Oh, thanks.”

He took the quiver and leather tube containing his long bow that Pidge held out for him and quickly removed the bow from inside to inspect it.

It didn’t _look_ like it’s broken, not even a crack on its well-oiled surface, which was a relief because he had no idea how he was going to repair it if it was so much as scratched.

He was about to go through the rest of his belongings to see if anything was missing or damaged when he heard Lance let out a long, despaired moan.

He turned to see what was up and saw his best friend completely crestfallen as he cradled his crossbow in his arm.

The weapon was completely wrecked. One of its lathes had snapped off and the stock was badly damaged, crushed by the rockslide.

Oh no.

“It’s broken! It’s completely broken!” he cried, turning it over carefully in his lap to inspect all the damage he could even though it clearly upset him to see it like that.

The crossbow was given by the knights. It was worn and old from years of use by many different hands, but Lance had been really proud of it because it meant the knights had deigned his skills as sharpshooter good enough to spare him valuable weaponry of his own since he couldn’t afford one. But now he couldn’t use it anymore and even though Hunk knew it wasn’t true and he wished Lance could see it too, he’s going to feel like there wasn’t anything going for him anymore if he couldn’t be a sharpshooter.

“Here, let me see it,” Hunk said, holding out his hands to take the crossbow from Lance.

Lance wordlessly gave it over and Hunk was gentle as he handled it, inspecting it from all angles.

There were a few cracks along the length of the stock but the largest was the one that ran from the smashed locking mechanism all the way towards the stirrup at the front.

Though he could possibly fix the lock using the parts from the projects he brought along with him as substitute, there wasn’t really anything he could do about the lathe or the damaged body.

Hunk felt his heart sink as he looked up at Lance, who had been staring at him hopefully but seeing his expression, his best friend wilted before forcing a smile.

“Eh, I’m sure I can get another one when we return to the knights,” he said lightly with a careless wave. It hurt to see Lance try to play it off.

“I’m so sorry,” Hunk said and he meant every word of it. “I mean, I could fix up the lock, but there’s just nothing I could do about the cracks or the lathe…”

“Hey, you mind if I take a look?” Pidge suddenly piped up.

Hunk jolted a bit, swiveling to his left to see that he was standing next to him, eyeing the crossbow in his hands contemplatively.

Oh yeah, Pidge was there too. He felt a little guilty that he’d been so wrapped up in this that he zoned him out.

Hunk glanced at Lance and getting a shrug in return, handed it over to him.

His movements as he twisted the crossbow around were a lot defter than Hunk’s though it was no less careful. It spoke of experience handling things. Hunk would know. He had the plenty of the same experience handling a ton of stuff.

After only a few moments examining it, Pidge nodded to himself and looked up to them.

“I think I could do something about that.”

Lance’s I’m-trying-to-look-like-I-don't-care-but-I’m-actually-really-upset slouch shot up again as new hope burst through him.

“Really?”

“Well, we could probably just use some resin to seal the cracks,” Pidge said, idly running a finger along one of the cracks. “The lathe’s going to be trickier though. We’re gonna hafta replace it, but using magic, I could strengthen the whole thing and even improve it.”

That sounded interesting but…

“How’re we going to replace the lathe though? It’s not like we’re blacksmiths or have any extras on hand or anything,” Hunk pointed out.

“It’s fine. We could use anything; even sticks. Magic,” Pidge said, wiggling her fingers with a lopsided grin. “I have a few ideas for what we could do to make this thing a hundred times better, but it depends on how good you are at rigging things up.”

“You need not question further because you’re looking at the rig-master himself,” Lance said in a loud, dramatic way. “Hunk could make or fix literally anything. He’s a genius when it comes to building things!”

Hunk felt his cheeks warm at the praise, but he smiled. “It’s a hobby of mine,” he told Pidge as he walked over to his pack and began riffling through it.

Sadly, it seemed two of his projects were broken, but his last one was intact.

He took it out to show Pidge, who bent to take a closer look at the clockwork horse- thing he’d been working on about as big as his palm.

He wound the key on its back and they both got on their knees as he set it on the floor.

The small construct trotted a few paces, reared up, went forward some more, and turned. Rinse, wash, repeat, but Pidge seemed impressed enough if his wide-eyed wonder was anything to go by.

“You made that?”

“Yeah, it was kind of tricky getting it to balance on two legs, though,” Hunk said with a laugh, remembering all the mishaps he had trying including the many times it just flopped on its back and flailed around.

“It’s incredible. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it,” Pidge continued on.

Hunk waved at him, feeling heat rise in his face. “Oh stop it, you.”

“That thing’s got nothing on what he’s made back home,” Lance chipped in, clearly enjoying watching him squirm, the traitor. His so-called best friend only smirked at his pout.

Pidge seemed interested though because he asked, “What’s he got back home?”

“Oh, just stuff that could make things run on their own, like a boat that could move without wind,” Lance hummed.

“Yeah, and I could very clearly remember you crashing it into some rocks so I don’t have that anymore,” Hunk huffed pointedly. "On the upside, the way you flew into the water was fun."

Lance shrunk a bit with split second embarrassment and yeah, Hunk was pretty P-ed off back then when it happened, but it’s been long enough since then and he’d long forgiven him for it that they could talk about it now without any bad feelings.

Pidge tapped her chin, intrigued and thoughtful and… giddy? It was kind of hard to describe, but there was this glint in his eyes. 

“Hey, you mind if I try something? I promise it won’t damage or break it.”

Hunk picked up the horse-thing (dubbed Lion by Lance. Why? Because reasons) that had since winded down. “Sure.”

He handed it over and Pidge had it stand on his palm, which began to glow green, and Hunk realized with awe that it was magic and he shared a look with Lance.

This was the first time they’ve seen magic at work so up close.

Small tendrils of magic twined up its legs like little vines that burrowed into Lion’s body.

After a minute more, the magic and its glow died down and Pidge set it on the floor once again.

Almost immediately, Lion reared on its hind legs and actually honest-to-goodness _galloped around_ , jumping, and then slowing to trot.

Hunk couldn’t pick his jaw up from the ground.

“What!” Lance yelped. “What is that? That’s amazing!”

“My magic isn’t quite mechanical,” Pidge explained with a hooked smirk, sounding rightfully smug as he adjusted his glasses. “It needs something preexisting to act as a structure around which it could work. In other words, it makes things that are already there more functional… or less functional.”

There was a bit of a mischievous lilt at the end there and Hunk wondered what kinds of things Pidge got up to with skills like this. Whatever he got up to, Hunk could already tell that he didn’t want to get on his bad side.

But the possibilities of what they could do together wasn’t lost on him, oh no. With him building the base and Pidge tweaking it up, they could even end up building an entire mechanical animal that could move all on its own!

Pidge was looking at him with the same excited gleam he was feeling bursting in his chest and everything was just so oh-my-goodness and great and coconut bread.

Lance snorted a laugh. “Look at your geek faces. You guys are practically drooling.”

Hunk turned a wide beam back at him. “It’s something worth drooling.”

“Yeah, imagine what we could _make,_ ” Pidge added, leaning back on the balls of his feet and bouncing slightly.

Lance glanced between them and said, “A monster is born.”

Pidge’s grin to that was sort of worrying. Should he be worried? He should be worried. “Oh yeah, you bet it is.”

“Okay, okay,” Hunk said, taking several deep breaths to calm back down from the high of this realization. There was still something they had to do that was kind of very important. “But before we make like, a dragon companion for Shiro or something...” He somewhat regret thinking that up when he saw Pidge’s eyes flash… almost literally. Must be an Aviaer thing. “… We have to fix Lance’s crossbow first.”

Pidge paused, head tilted to the side as if in epiphany. “Oh yeah, we were doing that weren’t we?”

“Hey! My crossbow is literally right in your lap! At least sound like you didn’t completely forget about it, would you?” Lance protested indignantly.

“So it is,” Pidge said with a grave nod.

Hunk snickered before getting back to what they were originally going to do. “So, about earlier. What’d you have in mind?”

“Oooh, this is so exciting. I’m getting pumped!” Lance exclaimed.

“Right so, I was thinking. I could inscribe a spell into the crossbow so that the replacement lathes could spring into place and reinforce itself to be stronger than metal when you activate it.” Pidge gestured with his hands to better illustrate what he was going for, putting his hands to the side of the crossbow before moving them up in an arc to the lathes. “I thought it’d make an easier time storing it away if the lathes weren’t sticking out, but that would require someone who would know how to make something like that in the first place, which was why I asked how good your handiwork was.”

“I think you’ve been satisfied,” Hunk said, rubbing the back of his neck before moving his hand to his chin. “But hold on. I don’t know a whole lot about magic, but I’m pretty sure you gotta be a magician to activate inscriptions.”

“Normally,” Pidge agreed. “Because they’re a source of power, but you know the crystal Rover has, right?” He beckoned his golem over, which had been hovering over their heads unobtrusively and yeah, Hunk forgot it was there.

Once it was close enough, Pidge held it up between his hands so that Hunk could see the glowing blue embedded in it.

“It’s got a huge amount of energy in it and it doesn’t drain fast like other magic sources. I have a bigger crystal I’ve been studying and we could use a piece of it to power the inscriptions. All Lance would have to do is press on a certain spot and presto! The crossbow will activate.” Pidge released Rover and it returned to its position overhead with a small chirp. “I’m even thinking I could make an inscription that would give sort of unlimited arrows. All he has to do is pull the string back and an arrow made of magic would form.”

“Really?” Lance practically screamed in excitement.

“ _Sort of_ unlimited,” Pidge stressed. “This crystal might have a huge magic store, but it’s not infinite. It’s going to run out some time and you won’t be able to use your crossbow at all, which means you either replace its energy source or trash the whole thing. You still want to modify it?”

“Yes! Yes! I want it! I want it so bad!” Lance cried, his good arm moving around wildly in emphasize, showing off why Hunk sometimes called him octopus arms.

“Okay then. Let’s get started. We better get what we need first though,” Hunk laughed.

They managed to gather what they needed and they were hard at work well into the night with Lance’s chattering in the background. They stopped only once for lunch and he hadn’t even noticed Keith returning with Red until he spoke up suddenly behind him, “So you guys want dinner or what?”

Hunk jerked up from where he was hunched over the crossbow with a short, startled cry, knocking his head against Pidge’s, bent over close enough across from him that he let out a hiss of pain at the collision.

In the background, Hunk could hear Lance laughing.

“Darn it, you random stray alley cat! What’d I say about sneaking up on me?” Pidge growled as he pressed a hand against his head, directing an owlish glare at him.

From his periphery, Hunk spotted Red brushing by to curl up in the corner with a yawn as Lance burst out gleefully, “Random stray alley cat?”

Keith on his part spared a short glare at Lance before turning back to them both bemused and _a_ mused as he replied, “I wasn’t? So do you guys want to eat or not?”

There was already a pot over the fireplace and Hunk let out a puff of air. “Next time, I’m doing the cooking. No offense, Keith, you’re a decent cook, but the stuff you serve is kind of bland.”

Keith only shrugged, looking none at all offended. “I got you some more ringt berries, by the way,” he said instead. “You seem fine but just in case.”

Hunk nodded in appreciation. “Thanks.”

“Can I have some?” Pidge grumbled.

“You’ll live,” Keith only said in reply, making Hunk giggle, but he immediately stifled it when Pidge turned to him with a look, remembering he didn’t want to get on his bad side. So instead, he put up his hands and Pidge let him go, instead picking up the crossbow and examining it closely.

The new and improved crossbow kind of looked better than before even with the sealed-up cracks. In fact, the resin they used shone a nice amber when the light hit it and coupled with the inscriptions carved along the wood, it looked, like a, well, a magic artifact. It was cool in any case.

“I think it’s pretty much done. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I think so too. All that’s left is to test it out, I guess,” Hunk agreed.

“Aw man, I won’t even get to be the first to use it,” Lance lamented.

“You’ll get plenty of time with it once you heal,” Pidge pointed out as they headed outside, turning to the left where the closest trees were, holding up a ball of silver light so they could see.

Keith stood by the doorway, watching curiously while Lance continued to whine inside.

Hunk stood a distance from their chosen target tree and let out a breath, nerves fluttering through his chest.

“Okay, here we go.”

He pressed his thumb against the knot of inscriptions etched into the butt and the wooden lathes sprung open, activating in a glow of blue. He stepped on the stirrup and pulled the string back.

The crystal they embedded near the activation inscription lit up and a shimmering line of bluish-white followed the path of the string. When he held up the crossbow, the light resolved itself into an arrow and Hunk’s heart picked up with growing excitement.

His arm trembled slightly as he took aim and fired.

A whizz of light shot into the tree, momentarily illuminating the small area around it, before vanishing from one blink to the next like a snuffed flame.

Pidge and he hurried over to check the place the arrow should’ve embedded itself and Pidge ran his orb of light over the bark until they found the mark.

It was a deep, round hole and Hunk brushed a hand over it, hardly believing it and hardly able to contain the ecstatic grin that broke across his face.

“We did it!” Pidge whooped, jumping up in celebration.

“Yeah!” Hunk cheered.

They gave each other a high five, dancing on the spot for a little while before finally turning identical grins to one another, catching their breath from the success of their first joint project.

“Well then,” Pidge finally said. “Looks like I’m going to have to work with you for as long as you’re here otherwise, it’ll be a waste, a real travesty.”

Hunk chuckled. “Yeah, same here.”

His stay up the mountains was suddenly looking a lot brighter.

**Author's Note:**

> This one really fought me. Three drafts, man. I was getting so frustrated and discouraged, but I hope you had a good read with this one!


End file.
